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Sheriff’s Department Fined By Obama For Not Hiring Non-Citizens

The Denver County Sheriff’s Office has been slapped with a fine by the Obama Administration because it refuses to hire non-citizens to be deputies.

From 2015 until March 2016, the department went on a hiring spree, getting jobs to more than 200 deputies. But those jobs went to U.S. citizens – since citizenship is a stated requirement on the job application.

That’s a “no-no” in Obama’s America, which has required the department to pay a $10,000 fine, the Daily Caller is reporting. Now, the sheriff’s department will have to sift through all the old applicants to identify people they eliminated from consideration because they were not U.S. citizens and reconsider them for future jobs.

Justifying this nonsense, Vanita Gupta, the Justice Department’s Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, said “Eliminating this unlawful citizenship requirement will help ensure that the Denver Sheriff Department hires the best and most qualified individuals to protect and serve.”

In an emailed statement, sheriff’s spokesman Simon Crittle said:

The Denver Sheriff Department maintains its commitment to treat all people with dignity and respect, and is proud to have one of the most diverse workplaces in Colorado.

While we didn’t commit this violation intentionally, we accept responsibility and are taking steps to clarify policy and amend language in hiring documents.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, employers are required to give equal treatment to non-citizens who have work permits, unless it’s a job specifically open only to U.S. citizens. More than 40 states currently have laws that in some capacity restrict non-citizens from being police, but Colorado is not one of them.

In a report released last October, the Department of Justice blasted citizenship requirements for officers as a “barrier” to creating more racially diverse police forces.

“While Federal law allows law enforcement agencies to impose a citizenship requirement where it is authorized by state or local law, this requirement may prevent a considerable number of racial and ethnic minorities – many of whom have valuable foreign language skills – from being hired by law enforcement agencies,” the report said.